Accrual of annual leave during maternity leave

[astronaut]

I would appreciate some advice on how leave entitlement is calculated during maternity leave.

My daughter was born in September 2008 and I'm taking the full 12 months maternity leave.

I work part-time, and my contract states an entitlement to 46 hours of bank/public/privilege holidays per year in addition to holiday leave.

The HR department have calculated how much leave has accrued during the maternity leave period but haven't included the entitlement to bank/public/privilege holidays as they say this would not apply during maternity leave.

Was under the impression that all terms & conditions of my contract would apply during OML, and therefore during the first 6 months of maternity leave I would accrue leave as if still at work.

Wonder if I've got this wrong?

I think you've hit on a bit of a grey zone there astronaut, I have seen other threads discussing this and the impression I get is that it comes down to what it says in your employment contract and what the employment lawyer that advises your company thinks.

I'm not an expert so hopefully someone with some law or HR expertise will come along and advise you further, but here's a link to a previous thread that might be useful.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=employment_issues&threadid=747610-Treatment-of-Bank-Holidays-whilst-on- maternity-leave#16069767

As Cookie says, a grey area, which the other thread debates at length.

The argument is basically - are they holiday (in which case, like other benefits, they continue to accrue) or, because they are the right not to attend work on only a few set, customary days, are they somehow a different species and not a contractual benefit.

For what it's worth, very few employers I know allow them to accrue and be paid out. The vast majority of private employers take the view that they are simply the right not to attend work on set days and be paid at your normal rate (i.e. SMP) and that this makes them somehow different. Not sure anyone has more comprehensive reasoning than that though!

AFAIK, you'd be a test case to try and take it further.